Irina Tarsis, Esq. is an art historian and a practicing attorney admitted to the bar in New York State. She earned her Masters Degree in Art History from Harvard University and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (NY). Ms. Tarsis launched the Center for Art Law as a blog in 2008/2009. Under her leadership, the Center was incorporated as a stand-alone non-profit organization in December 2017. Ms. Tarsis has served on the faculty of the Teachers College/Columbia University (2020), Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (2012, 2017-2018) and the European Shoah Legacy Institute/Provenance Research Training Workshops in Vilnius, Lithuania (2013), Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy (2014). Her publications include articles in the IFAR Journal, Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal, Cultural Heritage & Arts Review, Library and The Cultural Record, the ArtWatch UK Journal and the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law.

Rakhel Milstein is the founder of Milstein Law Group, a boutique immigration law firm located in downtown NYC.  She has been practicing immigration law for over two decades, focusing on “extraordinary ability” visas and green cards. While she also handles all types of immigration matters, including standard work visas/green cards and family based cases, she has extensive experience resolving complex immigration cases in federal court, as well. She prides herself on finding creative solutions for her clients to allow them to live, work and/or train in the U.S.

Rakhel is a frequent panelist and lecturer at various organizations including Rattlestick Theatre, Columbia University, NYU Tisch, Cardozo School of Law and Stanford Business School.

She is a graduate of Bard College (B.A.) and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University (J.D.); where she was the Articles Editor, Journal of International and Comparative Law, Cardozo School of Law.

Rakhel is admitted to the bar in New York, the District of Columbia, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, District of Colorado, District of Nebraska and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is a member of the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association and American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Minerva Pinto is an attorney with experience in art, intellectual property, and trust and estate law. She currently serves as both an Art & Collectibles Strategist and Senior Trust Officer at Goldman Sachs, working with collectors, fiduciaries, commercial/nonprofit organizations, and artists to ensure effective and tax-efficient management of passion assets across generations. Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2018, Minerva practiced intellectual property and licensing law, and gained additional art market experience at the Barnes Foundation, Freeman’s (now Freeman’s Hindman), the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and the Glenmede Trust Company. Passionate about the development of an equitable and sustainable art market on both a local and global scale, Minerva is active in a number of trade organizations including the Responsible Art Market Initiative, Professional Advisors to the International Art Market, and the Art & Business Council of Greater Boston, for which she sits on the Board of Directors. She holds a B.A. in History with a minor in Italian Language and Literature from Bryn Mawr College and received her J.D., LL.M in Taxation, and Certificate in Estate Planning from Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. She splits her professional time between New York City and Boston.

Diego R. Figueroa-Rodríguez, Of Counsel, DLA Piper is an attorney whose main practice focuses on representing issuers and underwriters in public finance transactions encompassing multiple types of financing structures.  He has acted as counsel in over 50 financing transactions involving the issuance of over $21 billion of bonds. •Due to his involvement in the art world as a collector, philanthropist and board member at various cultural institutions, Diego’s practice also includes advising artists, museums, galleries, sovereign countries, private foundations, collectors, auction houses and non-profit art organizations on matters involving commercial, intellectual property, finance, litigation, tax and real estate aspects.

Honorable Barbara Jaffe is newly retired from the New York State Supreme Court, New York County. She is now Of Counsel to Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler, Nahins & Goidel, PC, where she focuses exclusively on cases brought in the New York State Supreme and federal courts.

Syracuse University awarded Judge Jaffe a BA, cum laude, after which she was awarded a graduate fellowship to study Italian Renaissance Art in Florence, Italy, obtaining thereafter an MA in Italian Renaissance Art. She obtained her JD from Brooklyn Law School, after which she represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal for The Legal Aid Society. After serving successively as principal court attorney to two Supreme Court justices, Judge Jaffe was elected to the New York City Civil Court and subsequently appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, Civil Term, where she most recently presided in an individual assignment part and was specially assigned to try asbestos cases.

Presently, Judge Jaffe serves as a Director of the Center for Art Law, on the AdvisoryBoard of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA), and on the Supreme Court Committee of New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA). She has served on many local and state bar associations, including as a director of JALBCA and chair of its Program Committee, as a director of the New York Women’s Bar Association and co-chair of its Committee on Professional Ethics and Discipline, and as a member of the New York State Bar Association’s (State Bar) Task Force on Free Speech in the Digital Age and on the Executive Committee of its Entertainment, Art, and Sports Law Section for which she co-chaired the Bresler/Cowan Scholarship Competition.

Judge Jaffe was the New York City Bar Association’s (City Bar) Delegate to the State Bar and served on its Committee on Nominations, Committee on Art Law, Committee on Civil Court, Committee on Public Service and Education, and its Special Committee on Capital Punishment. At NYCLA, Judge Jaffe presided as co-chair of its Civil Court Practice Section and is a Founding Faculty Member of its Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute. She has also served on NYCLA’s Justice Center Advisory Board and its Committee on LGBTQ Issues, Pro Bono Committee, and Criminal Law Section.

Additionally, Judge Jaffe is a Past President of the Association of Arbitrators of the Small Claims Court which she represented when serving on the Executive Committee of the Network of Bar Leaders. She also chaired a joint committee of the City Bar and NYCLA which produced, in five foreign languages, the “Handbook for Criminal Defendants”; it was distributed state- wide and appears on the Unified Court System’s website.

Judge Jaffe was honored to receive the Beryl R. Jones-Woodin Art Law Alumni Award from the Art Law Association of Brooklyn Law School, and to have appeared in DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’s groundbreaking film, “Unlocking the Cage,” about the efforts of the Nonhuman Rights Project to obtain habeas corpus rights for chimpanzees.
Judge Jaffe has presented numerous continuing legal education programs on evidence, asbestos litigation, capital litigation, professional ethics, criminal law and procedure, mediation, and small claims procedure for the Unified Court System, NYCLA, the City Bar, the New York Women’s Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, the Columbian Lawyers Association, and others. She also moderated annual panels on various art law topics for NYCLA’s Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Institute.

Selected articles, book reviews, presentations:

• “Gerard David’s ‘The Justice of Cambyses,’ The Aesthetic, Religious, Mythological, Musical, and Legal Significance of the Flaying of Sisamnes,” 26 Green Bag 2d 25 (forthcoming, Autumn 2022)
• “After the Plague: A Eucharistic Illusion in an Early Renaissance Last Supper,” Columbus Citizens Foundation, Zoom, Sept. 17, 2020
• “Going Inside the Courtroom: Insight From the Bench,” New York County Lawyers Association Newsletter, vol 8, issue 15, Oct. 2013
• “Visions of ‘Justice,’ Reviewing ‘Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms’”, by Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis, 15 Green Bag 2d 209 (Winter 2012), http://www.greenbag.org/v15n2/v15n2_review_jaffe.pdf
• “Art Law: The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers, & Artists” (Bresler and Lerner, 4th ed.) New York Law Journal, Dec. 10, 2012, at 6 (book review)
• “What’s a Renoir Authenticity Case Doing in a Small Claims Court Like This?” Cultural Heritage and Arts Review (vol. 2, issue 1, Summer 2011)
• “Finding the Uncommon Deal,” New York Law Journal, Apr. 8, 2011, at 6 (book review)
• “The Art of Execution: Pictures and Punishment in Western Culture: The Aesthetic Image of Public Execution and its Impact on Criminal Justice: William Hogarth and the Law Relating to Capital Punishment in Eighteenth Century England,” 15 Law and Literature 2 (Summer 2003)
• “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America,” New York Law Journal, March 14, 2000, at 2 (book review)
• “Winning in Small Claims Court: A Step-by-Step Guide for Trying Your Own Small Claims Cases,” New York Law Journal, Aug. 13, 1999, at 2 (book review).

Carol J. Steinberg has practiced art, copyright, and entertainment law in New York City and on the East End of Long Island for over twenty years. She is a Member of the Faculty of the School of Visual Arts, where she teaches courses on artists’ rights. Ms. Steinberg is a co-chair of the Fine Arts Committee of the State Bar’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section and a member of the City Bar’s Art Law Committee, where she chairs the sub-committee on Artists’ Rights. She is also a consultant to the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and a member of the East Hampton Arts Council, the Fine Arts Federation, and ALAI (international artists’ rights organization founded by Victor Hugo).

Peter J. Toren is an intellectual property attorney in Washington, D.C. where he helps individuals and companies protect their IP rights. Mr. Toren is representing his family in a case against the Federal Republic of Germany involving family art stolen during the Second World War. (Toren v. Federal Republic of Germany, 1:16-cv-01885-RJL (D.D.C.)). Prior to entering private practice with Sidley Austin LLP, Mr. Toren was a federal prosecutor and handled a number of high-profile investigations involving violations of the CFAA, Criminal Copyright, Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods and the EEA. He is the author of the leading treatise on criminal violations of intellectual property rights and computer crime, Intellectual Property & Computer Crime, (Law Journal Press), and the co-author of Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (Wolters Kluwer). He has published over 100 articles and won the 2010 Burton Award for Excellence in Legal Writing for his article, The Intersection of Intellectual Property and Bankruptcy Law.

Elena Gurevich has been involved with the Center for Art Law for over seven years, where she has played a pivotal role in securing funding, fostering strategic partnerships, and supporting the organization’s growth and impact in the arts and legal communities. An experienced intellectual property attorney, Elena earned her LL.M. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she focused on intellectual property law. Her dedication to the intersection of art, law, and innovation drives her commitment to advancing the Center’s mission and supporting the broader arts sector.